Past, Present, Future - Cable, Deadpool 2
by FantasyandHistory
Summary: She's from the past, he's from the future... Nina Nova, a reality-harnessing mutant, has been with the X-Men since their start back in the 1960s - her immortality and non-linear timeline has its pros and cons, and makes for a lot of confusion, often making her feel as though she is floating in space, stuck... Full summary inside!
1. Introduction

Hello everyone! :) It's been a little while since I've started a new story, but I have a few new ones on the go right now that I'm really excited for, so stay tuned!

So I finally watched 'Deadpool 2' and really enjoyed it! Also, I was really intrigued by Cable before I watched it, and now that I have watched it I thought he was awesome! So here's a story for him :)

Full Summary:

 **She's from the past, he's from the future...**

 **Nina Nova, a reality-harnessing mutant, has been with the X-Men since their start back in the 1960s - her immortality and non-linear timeline has its pros and cons, and makes for a lot of confusion, often making her feel as though she is floating in space, stuck. When Wade Wilson finally joins the mutant team with a mission to save a teenage boy from the wrath of a cyber super-soldier from the future, Nina finds that perhaps it was destiny that she joins the mission, and that maybe she doesn't have as much control over reality as she thought... Follows the storyline of 'Deadpool 2' with references to the X-Men movies!**

I do not own 'Deadpool 2' or the characters, only my character Nina and her storyline :) Thanks! Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Introduction

 _I saw my death. In the future. It was quick, just a glimpse, but I know what I saw. I felt the pain of it, and knew that I was afraid… Understandably, for it was something I had never prepared myself for. I never thought I needed to._

 _The vision came to me in a dream, as they often did. It resembled that night those years ago when Jean and I had had simultaneous yet different visions when Apocalypse had awoken again for the first time in centuries. The whole mansion shook; lights flickered, and their fixtures trembled from where they hung from the ceiling; pictures fell from the walls, small glass pieces were smashed. And everyone woke up, startled and confused._

 _The older students tried to urge the newer and younger students to go back to bed, saying everything was alright. But was it? Yes, it was. All except for in my head._

 _I awoke with a start, snapped awake from my disturbing dream, sweaty and heaving heavy breaths, shaking violently. It took me a moment to realize where I was, in the darkness of my bedroom at the mansion, in the middle of the night. An occurrence such as this hadn't happened in a long time. And unlike with Apocalypse, this time I didn't know what it meant._

 _Mostly didn't know. I didn't know what it meant now, why the vision happened when it did. But I knew what it meant in the long run._

 _I had seen my death, me, the un-aging, undying one. I would face death in the future, and when it did happen, I would be afraid, a fear unlike any I had known before._

 **Just a little something to hopefully get you readers excited! :) Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed - more to come soon!**


	2. 1

1.

She had always been cautious concerning her powers, they being far too vast, far too complicated, and far too strong for anyone, including herself, to fully understand. She would always thank her lucky stars that Charles had found her that day in 1962, her powerset making it difficult for even him, the most powerful telepath, to locate her.

She had no recollection of where she came from. The earliest she remembered, in her confusing, non-linear timeline, was Ancient Egypt, all those centuries ago, with Apocalypse, almost ruling the world together.

In many ways the X-Men saved her. They became her home, her friends, her family. Back then she still had little control over her powers, and to quote Charles she was 'stumbling in the dark.' Not lost, but not yet found either. But then he and Erik had found her - perhaps it sounded cliché, but they really had changed her life forever. They had brought her home, where she had remained ever since.

Well, okay, there was the whole incident following Erik and Raven's betrayal where Charles went into a state of depression when she had left the mansion for a while. She couldn't bear to see Charles in such a state. And then she and Logan from the future had to go and help rework the past to save the future. _Confusing, I know._ That was a story for another time.

But since the '70s she had been here. She lived and worked at the mansion, teaching history to the students and helping them come to understand and accept their powers. Not to say that she had fully come to understand and accept hers, but she was doing better. Besides, she didn't think she would ever fully understand them. Some things were just too vast to fully understand.

In those years since Apocalypse she hadn't felt as afraid as she had last night with the vision, and so the next morning she did what she always did first when unsure or concerned about something: speak to Charles.

She got some stares from the students when she emerged from her room and made her way through the mansion to the Professor's study. She hadn't been this embarrassed in a long time. For the first time in decades, she shrunk away and closed herself off.

"I saw my death, Charles." The words, when she finally found the courage to speak, were soft and croaky, her voice catching in her throat when she spoke words she never thought she would speak or have to speak.

She heard him draw in a sharp breath. "It's in the future, I don't know when. But I don't just die, I'm killed. And it's terrifying-" Her voice broke, tears stinging her eyes.

He reached out across the desk and placed a gentle hand over hers. "Oh, Nina. We never thought this possible." He sighed, letting her have a moment to recover.

"It happened so fast, just a glimpse. I don't know how far in the future, when, where, or who kills me. I just know that it happens, and when it does its frightening." She looked up and met his eyes, always with kindness in them. "Would you look at it, please? See if you recognize anything?"

He appeared hesitant at this but eventually gave in. He reached across his desk again and placed his fingers gently against her temple, closed his eyes, and concentrated. This she found comforting.

She could feel his presence in her mind, in her thoughts, as he too witnessed the disturbing vision.

Suddenly he gasped and drew back sharply, and when he opened his eyes she saw tears forming in them. "Oh, Nina."

Her tears were returning too. "Did you recognize anything?" she asked him after a moment. She didn't want to press but was awfully curious.

He shook his head. "No, I didn't." She felt her heart sink. "Did you?"

"No, nothing." She thought back to it, the glimpse of a vision.

"This hasn't happened since - since..."

"I know." He reached for her hand again. Apocalypse. A traumatic experience for them both.

"But there was someone else there... That man..." Charles nodded, knowing of who she spoke. "But I don't know him, I have no idea who he is..." And he was recognizable too, this man from the vision, with one eye glowing amber, and one arm made of metal. She would know if she had seen him before.

Charles nodded again. "Do you think he has something to do with your death?"

She shook her head distantly, trying to remember the vision that was rapidly fading from her memory. "I don't think so. I don't think he causes it. But he's there, whoever he is... He's there when I die..."

A tense silence hovered in the air as they both absorbed this.

"I wish I could be of more help," Charles sighed, finally breaking the silence.

"No, you were helpful, as always. Thank you." She smiled, a sad smile however. "I'll let you know if there's anything else."

"Please do." He nodded as she left the study, the distant image of the mysterious man lingering in her memory.

 _Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :) Nina is an OC that I created for the X-Men film storylines, and I might write stories based on those too, but I thought it would be fun to add her into the Deadpool side of the X-Men universe too (especially since I enjoyed 'Deadpool 2' so much!) Thank you so much for reading, more to come soon!_


	3. 2

2.

The day before the all-too frightening vision-dream, Nina was in a meeting in Charles's study with Charles himself, Peter, Scott, Ororo, Kurt, and Hank. The meeting was interrupted by a sudden agitated yelling out in the hall, followed by Colossus's booming voice and heavy accent. They all looked to see Wade Wilson, without his Deadpool suit, wandering the halls while shouting, the source of all the yelling. He didn't seem to notice them, too busy with his shouting. Nina slipped out of the room while Hank closed the doors.

"Wade," she said gently, slowly approaching him.

He appeared to jump slightly - he had just been yelling asking where everyone was. "Oh, oh hey, Shorty."

To this she just rolled her eyes, by now used to his countless comments and jokes on her small stature. "You're here."

"Yeah, I sure am, Captain Obvious. Colossus brought me - and against my own will, I might add."

"Wade, I heard about Vanessa - I'm so sorry for your loss."

"Oh, does everyone know now?" He was obviously trying to sound angry, but promptly broke down, dramatically falling to his knees so he could be at a better level to hug her. "It's my fault," he sobbed.

"Shh, don't say that, that's not true." She returned the hug.

"Yes, it is! How do you know?!"

"I'm sure you did everything you could."

"We were gonna start a family," he added softly with a sniffle.

"Oh, Wade. I'm so sorry. Is there anything we can do to help?"

"He needs us," broke in Colossus.

"No I don't!" countered Wade, still crying.

"I'm with Colossus on this one," Nina agreed. "Right now, you could use some support. Wade, how long have you been wishing to be apart of the X-Men? This is your chance."

"That was before I lost everything that mattered to me."

"Listen, Wade," began Colossus, but Wade broke in.

He whirled around, facing the tall metal man, practically fuming he was so angry. "No, you listen you hulking pile of annoying metal! I don't need your help and I DON'T WANT IT!" With that he charged furiously down the hall, stepping into a room and slamming the door. Nina and Colossus could only watch in shock following his outburst.

"I'll get Negasonic, we'll deal with this," Colossus said after heaving a heavy sigh. "He's still in mourning, best let him take some time, then come to us when he's ready. You go back to your meeting, Nina."

"Alright," she agreed, though her gaze still lingered on the doorway which Wade had just stormed through. "Let me know if you need any help." And with that she returned to the others in the meeting.

That night, she had the vision, that haunting nightmare of a dream.

Meanwhile, across the city, a man arrived in town, having crossed timelines, unbeknownst to them his arrival simultaneous with her vision-dream.

But unlike a dream, which you could awaken from, this was real.

 _Thank you for showing this story some love! :) I hope you're enjoying so far! Thanks so much for reading and more to come soon!_


	4. 3

3.

Wade seemed to recover from his state of mourning quicker than anyone had expected, especially considering his state of depression, but he was soon back to his usual, chipper, joke-cracking self. He even took a mission with Colossus and Negasonic. It did not go well, however. Colossus had returned from the mission all in a huff, saying he was done trying to help Wade change his ways, and refused to talk about it. Negasonic only said that it had 'gone very wrong', all thanks to Douchepool she was quick to add.

Nina taught her history class in the morning, but all throughout the lesson she felt distracted, the still fairly vivid memory of the vision still present in her mind. She even ended up letting the students go early, to which they couldn't complain.

"Hi Ms. Nova!" She was just sorting through some papers on her desk when a very cheerful voice broke into her distracted thoughts. Looking up, she found the happy-go-lucky Yukio standing before her desk. The pink-haired girl gave her a wave.

She smiled back, the girl's happiness seeming contagious. "Hi Yukio."

"Are you alright? You seem - well, sad." Yukio's smile fell.

"Oh - yes, I'm fine," Nina lied, not ready to divulge the details of her morbid dream to anyone else yet. "Just didn't sleep well last night, is all. Bad dream."

"Well, I hope you'll be doing better soon!" Yukio was back to her smiling self.

"Thank you, Yukio. I appreciate your concern."

There was a tap at the door and they turned to see Negasonic standing there. "Hey, Ms. Nova," she said, popping her gum and giving the teacher a brief wave.

"Hi Ellie."

"Bye Ms. Nova!" chimed Yuiko before going to join her girlfriend.

"Bye Yukio, bye Ellie."

Nina went back to sorting papers, until she realized she wasn't even paying attention to what she was doing. She heaved a heavy sigh - she needed a distraction from her already present distraction. A long walk, perhaps? Perhaps she should leave campus for a change of scenery. She had been wanting to visit the vinyl record store downtown...

Leaving her papers to sort through and organize later, she gathered her coat and bag and teleported herself to the edge of downtown and began a brisk walk through the noisy city, hoping all the bustling and busyness would help clear her head, at least a little.

When she reached the record shop she took her time winding up and down the aisles rifling through the vast collection of records. Many she recognized from the '60s and '70s, recalling dancing in the library to these records with Charles and Erik, Raven, Hank and the others, and later in the '80s joined by Jean, Scott, Peter, and Ororo. She had many fond memories of first arriving at the mansion, she and Charles, both young and smitten, swinging each other around to the music, back before the accident and he lost his ability to walk, and therefore dance...

By the time she reached the counter she had circled the entire store a few times, front to back and back to front, and ended up with a stack of records to bring home. She was excitedly anticipating placing them on the player and filling her room with their music.

Shopping bag in hand she made her way back through downtown.

"Hi Weasel," she called to the man behind the counter upon entering the bar.

"Oh hey, Nina. Can I get you something to drink?"

"No, thanks. I was just out and about and thought I'd stop by."

"Well hey, thanks for thinking of us."

"Hi Dopinder," she called to the other man.

"Hello Miss Nina!"

"How's the superhero training going?"

"Oh wonderful!"

"Glad to hear."

"We're just closing up until tonight," Weasel explained.

"Well, I won't keep you. Say hi to Wade from me the next time you see him."

Down the street a ways a café caught her eye, suddenly making her crave some coffee. She sat inside with her steaming drink reading a book for a little while, her mind finally cleared of her distracting vision, at least for now. It had been a successful afternoon in that respect.

A fireplace sat against the far wall of the café, a fire crackling to life within. Nina stared at it - she did this back home too. Sometimes, if she started long enough, she could see the flames start to take shapes...

"AH!"

Everyone in the café stopped what they were doing and fell silent, looking to her when moments later she gave a sharp cry, jumping in her seat.

Instead of taking shape, the flames had triggered something, a memory, from the vision, one which she hadn't recognized before: fire. The crackling, the searing heat, the smoke...

Still getting stares from the other customers, she leapt to her feet and ran outside, frantically searching for a quiet place she could teleport from - she had to get back to the mansion and speak to Charles.

* * *

Meanwhile, across the city, a man in a small, shabby hotel room was trying to rid himself of his own demons. It didn't help that today's attack on the mutant holding cell had been disastrous, and that boy still lived all thanks to that talkative, annoying, dubstep-loving freak. Nathan hoped that guy, who seemed to just keep coming back, wouldn't be any more of a problem.

Images from the night he returned home to find everything he loved destroyed flashed through his mind, specifically his family's dead bodies. His life and those he loved, reduced to nothing but rubble, ashes, and all because of that boy. He tried to drown it out by taking gulps of beer - many empty cans littered the floor already.

Nathan needed some time to recover - that guy, the talkative, annoying one - had put up quite the fight, he had to admit, while trying to stop him from killing the kid.

Part of him hated to admit it, but he needed help. And there was only one person here in this time who he trusted enough - but she had no idea who he was. Not yet. The risk was great, but if she knew what happened in the future, she would help him.

He held up his arm and activated the tracker. The automated voice chimed to life.

 _"Searching... Searching..."_ A few moments of silence until finally- " _Located: Nina Nova."_

 _Yay and we finally get to see Cable! ;) There'll be more of him from now on! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)_


	5. 4

4.

She looked pretty much the same, even dressed similar – that was the thing about Nina: while the times changed, she didn't. She always stayed her wonderful self with her kindness and warmth, wicked sense of style, and generous nature.

Nathan couldn't help the way his blood boiled watching her talking and laughing with the guy as they left the bar, even if he could tell there was nothing there but friendship between them.

He could hear her voice as she spoke to the guy, her heavy accent that drove him crazy, and even from over here he could see that sparkle in her eyes.

He watched from the shadows as Nina and the guy parted ways. He wanted to call out to her, to chase after her.

When he returned later that night to the place the locator on his arm led him to, once it was dark, it was just the guy who left the bar.

Weasel was just leaving after another day at work when suddenly something latched onto his arm with an iron grip and dragged him onto the shadows of the alley outside the bar's back door. Next thing he knew he was slammed against the brick wall of the building, a gloved hand clenched around his throat, lifting him up a few inches in the air.

His attacker was all shadows, a wide hood covering his face.

It took Weasel a moment to absorb what was happening and find his voice. "What the hell-"

"Yell, and I'll snap your neck." This threat was enough to shut him up. "What is your relationship to Nina Sum- Nova?" He just caught himself.

The other man's voice was deep and smooth. Weasel squirmed. "Whoa, dude, chill. What is this?"

"Answer me!"

"I-I don't know her well, she's a friend of a friend, okay. She's a nice person."

"Yes, she is." The man's aggressive voice softened, but only for a moment. "Well I need you to pass a message on to her for me for tomorrow night..." He raised his other hand, and Weasel flinched, only to see that the man held a small piece of paper out to him. "Can I trust you to complete this task?"

"Listen, asshole. I wouldn't mess with-" The hand around Weasel's neck tightened, shattering his burst of courage. "Uh – yeah, yeah no problem, I'll do it!"

"Good." The man let Weasel fall.

His hand immediately went to his throat. When he regained his breath, he looked down at the paper. It bore a hotel name, room and floor number, and a time. "Wait, who should I tell her it's from?"

But the man was already gone.

* * *

 _Burned alive._ That was how she died.

"CHARLES!" She skidded down the hall to his study door and pounded on it. "Charles I remembered something! I-I..." The weight of this knowledge and what it meant settled down on her slowly, a deep, uneasy feeling in her gut. Tears fogged her eyes. "I-I'm so scared."

"You don't have to tell me." Charles, always his gentle, patient self.

The call came the next morning after a nearly sleepless night on her part. Every time she closed her eyes all she saw was fire, and she felt the searing pain as the flames engulfed her, consuming her. And that was only the beginning.

"Nina, phone is for you!" Colossus bellowed down the hall. Nina found him using the old-fashioned phone they kept in the hall near the library.

She didn't feel like speaking or being with anyone at the moment. "I'm sorry, can you tell them I'm not well."

"I'm afraid it's urgent."

She nodded and took the receiver, at least welcoming the distraction. "Hello, this is Nina."

 _"Nina."_ It was Weasel's voice.

"Oh hi, Weasel. Are you alright, you sound – shaken up." She noticed right away. She wondered if he could hear that her voice was off too.

If so, he didn't acknowledge it. He sighed heavily into the phone. _"We have a bit of a problem down here... You need to get here A-SAP. And bring the suit."_

This was how, less than half-an-hour later, all suited up minus her hood and scarf, she found herself back at the bar.

Weasel smacked down a little square of paper onto the counter. "A man cornered me in the alley last night just as I was leaving-"

"Were you mugged?" She was about to say that this was really more a problem he should take to the police, but he launched into a ramble before she could.

"Naw. He must have seen us together before, cause he knew we knew each other, though he seemed pretty pissed off by the fact. And he asked me to pass this on to you." He slid the piece of paper across the bar counter towards her.

She picked it up, reading the scratchy scrawl: a hotel name, floor and room number, and time, eight p.m. that night. "A rendezvous." Weasel was nodding, eyes wide behind his glasses. "Did you see what he looked like?"

"Naw, he had this whole hood-and-cape thing going on, and I didn't recognize his voice or anything. But he seemed to know you and wanted me to tell you to meet him there tonight."

She nodded, absorbing all this. Being an X-Man seemed to make you encounter some strange folks, like Wade for example. And this guy, whoever he was. Sometimes this had positive results, and other times it didn't. "Did he say what this meeting was about?"

"No, didn't tell me any facts, just gave me the note."

"And I'm guessing he threatened you should you not deliver this message, and should I not show?"

"Yeah..." Weasel nodded again, and judging by the look in his eyes the threat had been pretty bad. "But I don't know, Nina. I mean, that place is a shit-hole." He tapped the name of the hotel on the scrap of paper. "You only stay there if you're trying to lay-low."

She nodded distantly. "I'm sorry this has happened, Weasel. Leave it to me, I'll sort it out." She hated nothing more than when someone threatened or hurt someone she knew to get to her.

This new mission proved to be a good distraction from her current crisis, just what she needed, something to keep her busy. She just hoped the vision wouldn't distract her during this mission.

Boy was she wrong, in so many ways.

 _Nina and Cable will finally meet in the next chapter I promise (so excited!) Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!_


	6. 5

5.

At seven-thirty that night she found herself on the other side of town. The area was a little run-down - Weasel was right this was definitely a place to lay low. A distant siren droned through the night. She located the hotel, matching the name on the blinking neon sign to the one written on the square of paper.

There was no one at the front desk, however, there was a little bell you could ring, leaving her to assume - and hope - that there was someone working there, they were just in the back and the bell would summon them.

"Oh, yeah, this isn't sketchy, not at all," she mumbled, making her way down the dimly lit hall. The elevator creaked on its way up seven floors, and it rumbled to a stop, the doors not even opening all the way and she having to push them open to get out. The hall of seventh-floor rooms was also very dimly lit, and about mid-way down the lights flickered. Nina suppressed a shudder.

This was probably a terrible idea. All the signs were blaring like an alarm in her head: DON'T DO IT!

But she wanted to see what this was all about, and she didn't want Weasel to suffer should she not go through with this, especially since she told him she would sort it out.

She approached the door, room 703, listening for a moment and hesitating before knocking softly on the door, her gloved fingers rapping on its surface.

"Room service." She waited a few moments. Nothing. She knocked again. "Housekeeping?"

There was a moment of silence before she heard what sounded like heavy footsteps approaching. The occupant must have confirmed it was her through the door's peephole for the door opened moments later, just a crack.

"Always early," a deep, quiet voice chuckled. "You can come in."

The speaker's broad figure was already retreating back into the shadows and dimness of the room, so she didn't get a good look at him. "Close and lock the door behind you," he requested.

Nina hovered in the doorway. The room was lit only by a single bedside lamp, and the minimal light slipping through the closed blinds. _Here goes..._ Finally, she stepped into the room, shutting and locking the door as requested.

She took in her surroundings. "Hmmm, looks like you might be in need of some housekeeping..."

Empty beer cans littered the floor - she didn't notice them at first until one crunched beneath her boot and she kicked it aside. One that looked full sat on the beside table, a small teddy bear sitting next to it. The toy seemed strikingly out of place, and half of it was dirty and torn.

"Do you sleep on the floor?" she questioned after a moment of uncomfortably shifting her weight from one foot to the other, nodding to the bed that was covered in an array of guns.

He chuckled. "You can remove your scarf and hood, no need to hide here - Nina."

Alright, so he knew her by her name, not just her X-Men name, Night Witch. Raven had come up with it back in the '60s.

"I wasn't hiding, I was battle-ready." Again, she obliged, and removed her hood and the scarf that covered her nose and mouth. She then held up the note. "I got your note from Weasel-"

"Huh, 'Weasel'. Yeah, that's a fitting name." He sat on the edge of the bed, his back facing her, and began piecing the guns together like an intricate puzzle. He had obviously done this before, because he worked quickly and efficiently.

"Hey, don't be mean. I don't appreciate it that you threatened my friend. If you wanted to set up a meeting, why didn't you just come to the mansion and see me yourself?"

"I didn't want to draw too much attention."

Fair enough. "Can I ask who you are? Will you answer truthfully if I do? You evidently already know who I am. But I don't know you, and that's not really fair, is it?"

"Cable, I'm from the future," he answered directly. "And you're Nina, you're from the past."

Alright then. He _was_ familiar with her. She wasn't sure yet whether to be impressed or unsettled by this. "Okay, Future-boy. So, you know me, but I don't know you?"

"Yet, but yes."

"That's never a good sign."

He chuckled. "You always were funny. It is in this case, trust me."

"Should I know you?"

A brief pause. "Not yet."

"So we know each other in the future?" Best break this down, piece by piece. "Friends or enemies?"

Another pause, this one a little longer than the last. "Friends..."

"Oh, good. Just wanted to be sure." Again, her comment elicited a chuckle from him. "But Cable isn't your real name, is it? Or it could be, I don't know, it does sound sort of futuristic..."

Again, he chuckled. This eased the tension some, and she got some sense that they really were close in the future. "I'm Nathan, Nathan Summers."

She recognized the name right away. "Summers? Is that any relation to Alex and Scott Summers?"

He smiled a little. "Yeah. Scott's my dad. And My mom's Jean Grey."

Nina felt her jaw drop followed by a smile spread out across her face. "You're the son of Scott and Jean?! Oh my goodness they're my friends, we worked together for a while. I'm so glad they were able to settle down and start a family."

"Yeah, they told me all about you and the X-Men."

"Good things, I hope."

"Yeah, they only ever had good things to say - about you."

"So you're the son of Jean and Scott." She was grinning widely now. "And we're friends in the future?"

"Yeah. We know each other well."

"Well it's nice to meet you, Nathan, I'm Nina - but I guess you already know that." Now it was her turn to chuckle. "What are you doing here then?"

"I'm on a mission." His tone darkened notably.

"And you need my help?" she put together.

"Yes."

"Why me?"

"Because - because I know I can trust you." A pause. "I need you to help me take out someone-"

"Whoa, like you mean - _kill?_ " she cut in. He nodded. "I don't really do that sort of thing. I can put you in contact with my friend Wade though-"

"Please, Nina." He sounded desperate. He'd set the gun aside and was now fiddling with his fingers.

There was so much she wanted to ask, especially about the future. But now she had to make sure she asked the right questions. And maybe, just maybe, since he was from the future, he knew something about her vision and her death. "Who's the target?"

Instead of answering he held up his arm, which glowed to life, and projected an image into the air. This startled her - she couldn't tell from the dimness and shadows, but maybe he was wearing some sort of futuristic device on his arm?

It didn't startle her as much as the image though, that of a young teenage boy. The name _Russell Collins_ was written beneath the photograph.

"That's him?!" she cried. "That's the person you're going to kill, you're going to, 'take out'?" _And that you want me to help you with._ "No, no I will not help you! Friends in the future or not! What sort of person must I be in the future to make you assume that I would assist you in murdering an innocent boy?" The very thought of it enraged her.

"He's not innocent, not for long."

"He's a child!"

"Yeah, a dangerous, mutant child."

"I'm not helping you kill him! Why would I do that?! If you know me so well as you so claim to then you know that I would never do something like that!" She looked away. "I'm sorry but I can't help you. It's my job to help children like him, that's what I do."

"If you knew what I knew about him-"

"Well I don't, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you're going to tell me." Now she was nervous - what did this mean for who she was in the future? What did she do? And was she really friends with this man who was asking her to kill a child?

"What does he do that's so bad you feel you need to 'take him out'?"

"It's not about what he's done so much as what he's going to do. I have to stop him before that."

"Before what? Tell me, Future-boy." He chuckled at the nickname, but other than that, silence, nothing. "Well?"she pressed.

He sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair. "I don't actually need your help, I just wanted it. I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't help it. I just wanted an excuse, a chance, to see you again, alive and well."

 _See you again?_ This was proving to be almost as difficult to follow as trying to keep her own timeline straight in her head. "I'm s-sorry, I'm just so confused..."

He sighed again. "Naw, that's my fault."

There was a somewhat uncomfortable silence. "Why won't you look at me?" she finally asked. He hadn't looked directly at her once this whole time.

In response, his head, which was turned looking over his shoulder, snapped back to face the wall, as if he had caught himself looking at her when he didn't want to. This hadn't gone un-noticed by her - he was avoiding looking at her this whole time, that much was certain. There was something he wasn't telling her.

"How do we know each other in the future? Besides my knowing your parents?"

He buried his face in his hands, then smoothed his fingers through his hair. "This was a really bad idea. Maybe you should go..." He flicked off the lamp.

"What's going on?"

"Please, Nina, just-" A sound broke free from his throat then, and she realized that he was choking back a sob.

Now she was even more startled. "Oh - you're obviously unwell. Please, let me help you, Nathan."

She didn't mean to creep up on him, but he mustn't have heard her approaching, for he was obviously startled to find her suddenly so close. He jumped, and she did too, a crack of light from the window illuminating half his face and upper body, just enough for her to catch a glimpse of his one glowing eye and metal arm.

She let out a gasp and jumped back. "You-" He was the man from her dream, the man present at her death.

 _Cliffhanger! ;) well of course we as the audience knew it was him, so it might not have been as much of a shock to us - more big reveals in the next chapter - I'm so excited!_

 _Thanks so much for reading! And if you're looking for more Josh Brolin as the bad guy, I started an 'Infinity War' story with a big focus on Thanos, so please check it out if you're interested! Thanks! :)_


	7. 6

6.

Her mouth fell open in shock. "You, you're the man from my dream, I dreamt of you... Okay, that sounds a little creepy, but I had a vision of my death in the future and you were there - and you're from the future."

His head snapped up. "Your death?"

"Yes." He spun around to face her, though still not fully looking at her. "You know it?"

He swallowed hard, looking at the floor. "Yes."

This couldn't all be a coincidence, it worked out too well to be one. "When did you travel here, to this year?" she asked.

"A couple of nights ago."

"So that's what triggered the vision." It was all piecing together now... The same had happened when Apocalypse had awoken centuries later, her past connecting with her present, a man out of his time. And now this was her future connecting with her present... And this man was also out of his time. Both had caused a rift in their respective timelines, triggering her visions.

"How much do you know?" he asked softly, still not looking at her. It was starting to get on her nerves.

"Well, there's a fire... You're there. And I'm afraid..." She looked up at him. "Is that right?" Now he stood and turned his whole body away. "Is that why you're here? To warn me about it?"

"To stop it, prevent it from ever happening."

"How are you going to do that?"

"By taking out the man who kills you."

"But-" Then it clicked. "The child, he's my murderer? My future murderer?"

He nodded, back still to her. "He grows up to become a killer, and not just of you, but of many."

"B-but, why? Why are you so hell-bent on killing him?"

"Other than the fact that he kills you?" His voice had hardened, growing defensive. She saw his shadow tense.

"So as my future friend you're trying to stop my murder?"

A pause. "Yes."

Now it was her turn to pause. "But that's not all. I'm sensing something more, a deeper reason."

"Does there have to be one?" Now he sounded annoyed. This only frustrated and confused her more.

"I'm just trying to understand! I'm getting rather mixed messages here. If we're so close in the future, then why won't you look at me?" He didn't answer, but made a point of looking away again, again catching himself looking at her. She blew her bangs out of her eyes frustratedly. Just as they seemed to be making progress, he shied away again. But she was still missing something here, something big, something crucial.

He chuckled, startling her. "You do that in the future too, when you're annoyed or frustrated. Blow your hair out of your face. You do it a lot around me." A small smile graced his lips. A somewhat sad smile, she noted.

"But why me, why does he kill me? Do I do something?"

"Not you, me. I do something to piss him off and he goes after you."

"He goes after me to get to you?" she clarified. "Why? Why me? That still doesn't answer my question."

His smile instantly fell. "I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you-"

"Oh yeah? Try me, Future-boy."

He gave another chuckle, this one a half-chuckle. "Or I'm worried you might not want to believe me."

"What's that supposed to mean?" No answer. "Who are you? Why are you here? Why are you hiding from me if you asked me to come here?"

"It was a stupid idea."

"Why?! I'm just going to keep asking questions until you give me a straight answer."

He sighed heavily, averting his gaze yet again.

She gave a defeated sigh. "If you don't tell me, then I'm going to see for myself." She would look into his memories if she had to. She wasn't telepathic at all, it was just focusing on isolating the tiny fragments of reality that were his memories that allowed her to see them. She'd tried it before, and couldn't hold the memories very long. Charles had helped her develop this skill and had let her practice on him. It took a lot of patience and concentration, and she didn't just see them, but also felt them, the emotions that went with them, as though she were experiencing them too.

He seemed to know what she was doing, as she approached him and gently placed her hands on the sides of his face, holding his head, fingertips against his temples. He reached up and took her gloved hands, lowering them again. His touch was soft, tender, but also urgent, as though he was hanging onto every moment, not wanting to let go.

His mechanical eye glowed dimly. "I don't want you to see it."

"Would it be easier than you having to explain it?"

"I-"

"Would it be?" She could tell that it all had taken a heavy toll on him, and she wondered whether he would even be able to tell her. If it was this bad she didn't want to put him through that.

He sighed, defeated, and let go of her hands. She returned them to his temples, closed her eyes, and concentrated.

 _Darkness... It always began this way. Then, bright light and loud sounds - chaos. Slowly, everything came into sharp focus._

 _She saw herself - gosh, she looked pretty much the same - she was sporting the same long bangs and straight hair as she had in the '70s. Even her clothes were similar. She still dressed like she was in the '70s. And yet, she had a different air of maturity about her._

 _"Nathan!"_

 _"Neen!"_

 _Suddenly, he was there too. "Oh thank God-"_

 _They ran into each other's arms and held each other in a tight embrace, he holding her against his chest. Then they pulled back slightly and looked at each other, cupping each other's faces._

 _"I can't find her anywhere, none of the neighbours have seen her," Nathan cried, his voice panicked._

 _"She's got to be here somewhere - I'm going back to look-" She broke away and started running, him calling after her._

 _Everything around her was burning - trees, houses, cars. The air was thick and heavy with smoke, making her cough and choke, and everything was bathed in a sharp orange light. It appeared apocalyptic._

 _She seemed to know where she was going, weaving in and around the flaming barriers until she reached a quiet part of the street, not yet burning. A quiet house sat, it not yet consumed by the blazing inferno._

 _"Hope!" she was screaming. "HOPE!"_

 _One moment bled into another. It all happened so fast-_

 _The flames were moving closer to the house._

 _"Mummy! Daddy!" A little girl's scream._

 _"NO!"_

 _Next thing she knew her future self burst into the house, just as the man, the adult Russell Collins, blasted open the door with a fistful of flame. The little girl was kneeling behind the table, hiding, clutching her teddy bear to her chest almost protectively. Her future self didn't even try to stop Collins, she went straight to the little girl - her daughter._

 _She reached the girl just as the flames did - there was no time to do anything to try and stop it. She hadn't been focused on that - all she had been thinking about was getting to her daughter, so she wouldn't be alone._

 _She dove forward, arms outstretched._

 _"Hope!"_

 _"Mummy!"_

 _She grabbed the little girl, who screamed, twisting their bodies so that hers blocked Hope, so that the flames would hit her first, her body acting as Hope's shield. Maybe there was some chance Hope could still survive... But it was already too late. If only she had gotten there a few moments sooner..._

 _"Blessed are the wicked who were healed by my hand!" Collins was gone._

 _The flames ignited, causing a blast to engulf the whole house, consuming everything, including them._

And she thought the vision was bad.

But this was so much worse.

Then came the part of the memory that was the most clear, vivid, sharp, obviously recent. She could tell that it had been eating away at him, consuming his thoughts just like the vision of it had haunted her.

 _Suddenly, she was standing there in the still smouldering remains of their house, their home. That's how vivid the memory was, so much so that it felt as though she had been transported there to that very moment, witnessing and living it along with him._

 _Nathan was now kneeling amongst the remains of their home. Not much was left, nothing but piles of rubble. Ash punctured the still smoke-heavy air, turning everything grey. He plucked the teddy bear off the floor and stared down at it for a moment before pressing it to his trembling lips._

 _Nina's stomach lurched when she realized what he was kneeling before - the burned corpses of his wife and daughter._

 _His wife and daughter..._

 _Her dead body, still clutching that of her daughter, their daughter._

 _His wife and daughter._

And then it was gone.

 _Some of you guessed it: yes Nina is his wife! ; ) And yay, now they are reunited (sort of!) Sorry for the delay! I've decided that I'll definitely be continuing this story beyond the movie storyline ;) I have some ideas! Thank you so much for reading!_


	8. 7

7.

Abruptly and sharply she was snapped back to reality – a strike of pain shot through her head as the memory was cut off and she collapsed to the floor in a heap.

The pain was now a dull pounding, though it felt as though the image was seared permanently onto her eyes, into her mind, always there to haunt her.

She realized that she was a blubbering, shaking mess on the floor of his hotel room, but didn't care. Thinking back, she later realized that her reaction had probably caused him to think that she was horrified by their future, the fact that she was his wife. And while that had come as a shock, that wasn't exactly the most shocking part.

Only it was. She already knew of her death, had seen it happen thanks to him traveling through time to reach this year to try and stop it, and now with the trauma of pretty much witnessing her own death and then seeing her own dead body, and so clearly from his vivid memory, had knocked the air from her, making it hard to breathe and think. Everything was a whirlwind.

He had been right, she shouldn't have looked at those memories.

She almost didn't dare look up at him. Her head swam, leaving her feeling dizzy and nauseous. _I think I'm going to be sick…_ Her stomach and head were both spinning equally fast, though not in rhythm. She had witnessed death before, but seeing your own dead body, along with that of your child was very much something else entirely.

It was only then that she realized he was speaking to her, or trying to. His voice sounded distant. "Nina? Nina?"

Finally, she looked up at him, to see his expression laced with concern, tears glistening in his eyes. It was obvious that he wanted to comfort her, but seemed to almost be holding himself back from doing so.

Only then she noticed the wedding ring on his finger that he was now twisting – when she had seen him fiddling with his fingers before that was what he had been doing.

"We're – you're my – I'm your – we…" She couldn't get the words out, couldn't form any coherent thoughts. _We're not just friends, or close in the future. We're married – I'm your wife. We have a child, a daughter… Hope…_ She now understood why it had seemed like we as struggling to explain everything to her earlier – it wasn't exactly easy to explain, especially for him when it was his reality.

She had to get out of here. That was all she could clearly process at the moment. Like with reading and feeling his memories, her teleportation ability was based on her concentrating on a few small fragments of reality of the place she was and the place she wanted to be. She knew exactly where she wanted to be then.

The world around her began to fade, slower than usual as she was having trouble concentrating. He seemed to know what she was doing for he got to his feet.

"Nina-" But she didn't hear the rest.

Soon, sure enough, the dingy carpet she was lying on faded into the intricately patterned, coloured rug outside Charles's office back at the mansion. Seeing it again was the most comforting feeling right then and there.

She collapsed on the floor right outside the office door, exactly where she wanted to be right now.

He must have heard her shaking sobs for moments later the door opened, and he wheeled out of the room. "Nina! What's wrong? What happened?" It was impossible to mistake the obvious startled sound of his voice.

She didn't answer. She _couldn't_ answer. She still couldn't quite believe it herself.

She didn't say anything and instead raised herself up to kneel so that she could grip the front of his shirt and bury her face in his chest. Being the compassionate soul he was, Charles didn't press, and wrapped his arms tightly around her.

"Charles," she finally managed once her sobs had subsided a little. "I-I'm scared..."

* * *

Wade was back. Turned out he had served a short time in the Ice Box, the massive mutant prison outside the city. Cable had attacked the prison, attempting to kill the mutant boy Russell. Yes, the same Cable who had asked her to help him do this. The same Cable who was her future husband.

Wade was now on a mission to stop Cable and save Russell. He'd come back to the mansion in hopes of recruiting some help. Colossus was still bitter to say the least about what happened last time, and refused to even see him, and Negasonic wasn't about to help Wade, only if Colossus went too. In the aftermath of meeting her future husband and catching a glimpse of the dark future and her death, Nina wasn't up for any missions at the moment, and didn't end up seeing him either.

She was back in Charles's office a couple of days later. She hadn't even been able to confide in him what the vision was, what it meant, and that was saying a lot. She always confided in him. He was the one person she trusted unconditionally.

The two sat in silence across from each other at his desk, the silence only broken when she spoke:

"Take them away, please." It sounded like she was begging, and maybe she was. She just couldn't get the image out of her mind. Of course, not all of it was a bad shock, like the fact that she got married and had a family in the future, however, that didn't make it any less shocking. Part of her felt guilty, reacting so strongly against that, but the fact was she hadn't seen it coming, at all. Possibilities of marriage and children hadn't ever really crossed her mind – her unaligned timeline had prevented it, or at least she thought it had. In many ways she always thought she would stay at the mansion with the X-Men forever, and she was content with that.

Charles sat back in his wheelchair, eyeing her from across the desk. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." She answered almost instantly. He did so, and it would be like she had never experienced them and they couldn't trouble her and haunt her as they were doing now.

But then she would never know.

But that was just it, she wasn't supposed to know what happened in the future, but now she did. It felt like cheating, and she felt guilty; she could do something now that she knew, even though she was never supposed to know in the first place. It was complicated, as her whole life and power-set seemed to be.

Charles was just reaching out a gentle hand to place against her temple when she cried, "Wait!" He drew back. She shook her head. "Erasing them would be the easy way out. Now that I know, I _have_ to do something." If she did nothing, she would basically be condemning herself to death in the future, as well as her future daughter. She couldn't do that, especially not to the little girl. _Hope_. "I know I'll regret it if I don't. I have to stop him."

Charles wasn't sure who she was speaking of, but he watched as she quickly fled from the office. If she left now she might just be able to catch up with Wade…

 _Whew, that took me longer than I'd hoped but there it is! I imagine Céline Dion's 'Ashes' playing during this chapter and the one before when she sees the memories, Nathan losing Nina and Hope mirroring how Wade lost Vanessa... :( (it's a beautiful song though!)_

 _Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Also, I finally updated the first couple chapters of my 'Infinity War' story, so please check it out if you're interested - thanks! :)_


	9. 8

8.

From where she was perched atop a building, Nina could make out the hulking, dark figure of the convoy snaking through the streets of downtown. Behind it she could just make out the red figure of Wade following behind a ways on what looked to be a scooter.

 _"He's on top of you... He's going in through the back... He's tearing you open... Oh God he's inside!"_ Wade was shouting over the radio about Cable, who was attacking the convoy. Nina could see the reflections of sunlight against his metal arm.

" _You hear yourself, right_?" demanded Wade's team member.

 _"Accidental double-entendres!"_

"Yikes, bad time to come into this conversation." Nina had taken a communication device from the mansion and had already connected it to their channel.

She heard Wade gasp. " _Shorty! You're here?! Wait, how did you know where to find us_?"

"I just followed the mess. You know, keeping the death and injury count low-to-none is supposed to be part of the job." The road was already littered with many destroyed cars.

 _"Yeah... We're trying..."_

"Maybe I can help with that. I'm here to take you up on your offer."

 _"Yay! Welcome to X-Force!"_

"X-Force?"

 _"That's my team. Welcome aboard! Here, I'll fill you in: so there's a mutant kid in that convoy, and he's being hunted down by this super-cyber dude who's all like, 'I'm Cable, I'm from the future, and I like blowing shit up - HANDS OFF THAT KID!"_

She jumped when Wade started yelling, obviously not meant for over the radio. _"Hang in there, Doms!_ _Okay, new plan: screw the original plan and do whatever you have to to stop Cable from killing that kid!"_

Nina rolled her eyes. Great instruction, Team Leader. This was certainly different from what she was used to, fighting with the X-Men, but that didn't mean it couldn't work. "I'm heading in."

 _"Alrighty, see you soon!"_

She waited until the convoy was passing under the building she was on before jumping down.

Call it fate, luck, or just pure, plain coincidence, but after phasing through the convoy's roof, she landed on someone.

And that someone was Cable.

He had just been about to shoot the woman in the black leather suit, who Nina assumed was Wade's team member who she had heard over the radio. Nina hit his shoulders and sent both of them crumbling to the convoy floor. She was a little embarrassed to say the least and scrambled to regain her footing.

"Well that was lucky! Thanks for droppin' in." The woman helped Nina to her feet. "I'm Domino."

"Nina. Nice to meet you, Domino."

"Likewise." The two women shook hands. "Is it just me, or did we just become, like, best friends?"

"No, I felt it too."

"Cool! Lucky us!" Domino beamed.

Cable was just getting to his feet. "You take the wheel, I'll deal with this?" Nina suggested.

"Deal." Domino headed back up to the driver's seat and regained control of the runaway truck.

"Nina." Nathan was now on his feet too, regarding her. "You're here."

"Yeah..." Honestly, she didn't know what to say. 'Hi, Future-husband and father of my future child' was maybe a bit much.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "After you left the other night I-"

"Yeah, I'm alright, just a little shaken up..."

He nodded, understanding. "I'm glad you're here."

"What - no. I'm not here to help you kill the kid. I'm here to help these guys save the kid - from you. I can't let you do this."

"Then just walk away."

"You got me involved - I'm in it now!"

"Hey Shorty, enough of the chit-chat!" Wade called. He was still zooming behind them on the scooter - she wondered where he had gotten that. "You're not going to be able to talk your way out of this one. At least reality-blast him or something! And as for you, Winter Soldier-" Wade drew a pistol from his belt. "-Leave Russell alone!"

Acting quick Nathan shoved her to the side as Wade began shooting, even though the bullets were intended for him. They ended up with her with her back pressed against the wall of the truck, he leaning over her with his hands on either side of her head against the wall, their faces close.

After staring down at her for a moment he turned to shoot back at Wade, and while he did so she ducked beneath his arm and headed deeper into the convoy in search of Russell. "And you said you didn't want to draw too much attention," she muttered, recalling his words from the night they'd met.

Wade ended up joining them in the convoy and he and Cable quickly became engaged in a fight sequence full of guns, swords, and metal-armed punches.

Domino came and joined her teammate against the super-soldier. "You're doing great!" she told Wade.

"X-Force!" he replied excitedly. Then he turned back to face Cable and drew his swords. "Bring it on - give me your best shot, One-eyed Willy!"

"Hey Domino, if we're all back here, who's driving?" Nina asked.

"No one - but don't worry, I'm lucky, so we'll be good." She said it with such confidence that Nina couldn't help but believe her - they seemed to be going smoothly so far without a driver. "Lady Luck has the wheel - we're in good hands!"

Nina searched for Russell. She recalled the photo Nathan had shown her the other night, but couldn't find the young mutant.

Her search being unsuccessful, she was considering calling out for the boy when Domino, who had resumed her position at the wheel, announced, "We got no brakes!"

"Hey Shorty - think you can use your magical reality powers to slow us down?"

"I'll try - hang on to something."

"I am, I'm holding Cable's hand." This was met by a grunt from Cable himself who promptly wrenched his hand from Wade's grasp and punched him.

Nina plunged a handful of energy at the ground, concentrating on slowing them down. The convoy lurched around a corner, crashing its way through the many obstacles ahead.

She heard a grunt from behind her and turned to see Nathan tackle Wade.

"Wade, do you need help?" An idea had popped into her head - she didn't like it, but it could help.

"I'm good! AHHH-" Cable grabbed him by the front of his suit and launched him across the convoy. "On second thought..."

"I have an idea - it's kind of cruel though, and taunting."

"Just do it!"

"Alright, here goes - ugh this is so cliché!" With that she dove between the two fighting men, grabbed Nathan by the front of his shirt, and kissed him.

This had the desired outcome, for it stunned Nathan. And Wade.

"Well, okay. I like where your thoughts are. Nicely done." Wade raised his gun. "Now step away from my Shorty!"

"No!" Nina now leapt in front of Nathan. What was with these people and killing each other? "No Wade, you can't! He's - he's my husband!"

The white eyes of his mask widened. "Uh, I'm sorry, what?"

"In the future, we're married, I guess." She looked to Nathan. "Tell him!"

"Wait, wait, wait - hold on a second! You mean to tell me that you-" He pointed to her. "-And you-" Then he pointed to Nathan and instead of continuing waved his finger back and forth between them. They just nodded. "What the shit?!"

No one had time to respond for they were interrupted by sudden footsteps, only to see a giant figure emerge from the section of the convoy they were in.

"Oh my God!" Wade's shout was broken when the figure pounded a large fist into the ground, creating a shock-wave down the road that sent the convoy and all its occupants flying through the air, only to send them crashing to the road in a huge mess.

The next thing she knew Nina was sailing through the air, the ground getting nearer and nearer. She tried to cast some sort of protective energy field before making impact - this helped but she still had the wind knocked out of her as she hit the ground, spinning and rolling until she crashed into a limp heap, landing on something.

As it turned out that something was actually someone, and guess who that someone was...

By this point, she had accepted that fate was trying to push them together. This turned out to be more embarrassing than anything.

Nathan lay on his back, covered in dust and small concrete pieces. His metal arm was bent at an odd angle. She lay sprawled out on his chest.

"Oh come on-" She jumped when he moved suddenly, and she quickly scurried off him.

He groaned but as soon as he saw her seemed to forget his own obvious pain. "Nina - are you okay? You're not hurt are you?"

"A little bumped and bruised, and stiff, but okay, yeah, thanks. You?" She ventured.

"I've had worse." Unsteadily, he got to his feet. Then he assessed the damaged and cursed. "He got away." She wasn't sure if he meant Wade or Russell, maybe both.

"I wonder what that - thing was."

He held up his still-bent arm and scanned for something. "According to the convoy's files - or what's left of them - he's called the Juggernaut."

"Oh..."

"We've got to move-" He was already turning away. "Time's ticking and it looks like we'll have a new enemy to face." He walked a little further before noticing that she wasn't following. He stopped. "You coming?"

"I-I - I guess so." She caught up with him and they left the wreckage behind.

* * *

Nathan led them back to his hotel room - still the same shabby one as before, where they could get cleaned up.

Nina teleported some clean clothes from the mansion to change into so she could get out of her suit for a little while.

When she came out of the bathroom from changing she was met by him standing shirtless in the middle of the room, fixing up his arm.

The intricacy of the metal fused with skin... She caught herself staring, and quickly looked away. Luckily, his back was to her. She hoped he wouldn't mention the kiss - she wasn't planning on bringing it up.

She cleared her throat to get his attention, making sure to avert her gaze from his bare and very-muscular chest. "Just so you know, just because I'm with you now doesn't mean I'm working with you. I'm not going to let you kill him."

He sighed heavily, sitting on the bed. "I figured as much."

"Now that I know, I can't just do nothing. Like I said, I can't let you do this-"

"Well what do you want me to do?" he cut in. "Say, 'hi, please don't kill my family in the future'."

"Well that would be better than shooting at him! You'll only provoke him."

"Fifty years from now he's going to kill you and our daughter. You can be damn well sure I'm not going to let that happen."

"I refuse to believe that this is the only way to prevent it. The future isn't set."

There was a tense pause before he sighed again. "Well, I'm not taking any chances."

(So Nina's powers are quite extensive, encompassing all of reality, and I pictured her phasing being like that of Ava Starr/Ghost from 'Ant-Man and the Wasp', only Nina has more control over hers (Ghost's powers looked SO cool in that movie!) And I imagine her stopping the convoy like Wanda stops the runaway train in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' (Wanda is actually the inspiration for a lot of my characters - thanks Wanda! ;)) Just a little note to help you all visualize Nina's powers a little better :) (they're complicated, I know!)

And I just wanted to say that from now on there'll be more cursing in this story - since Wade will be back and you know how much he loves his F-words, and so does Cable, so when the two of them get together F-word chaos ensues ;) Also I'm using dialogue from both the theatrical and super-duper cut (both are great!)Thanks! And thanks so much for reading, hope you enjoyed! :))


	10. 9

9.

"I'll tell you why I'm here: the Time Traveller's Wife's husband beat me within an inch of my life, he tortured me. And all I told him was – exactly what he wanted to know." Weasel's declaration was followed by silence, until there came a knock at the door. Everyone reached for their weapons.

"It's me," called a familiar heavy accent.

"Shorty, come on in," called Wade. "Glad you could join us."

She'd told Nathan she would go in first.

"Hey Bestie!" called Domino.

"Hey Doms! Hi Weasel, hi Dopinder, hi Al, hey Wa- oh-" She quickly looked away. "What happened?"

"Well, long story short, I got ripped in half."

"Yeah, no, got that much. How did that happen? Actually, you know what, I don't even want to know so just ignore that last question."

"Probably a good idea," said Domino.

"Well, that explains all the blood and guts that led us here," she mumbled. "Russell's in danger, he's going down a dark path. I'm here to help, that's my job."

"Glad to hear it, cause I ain't letting Cable get to him."

"How are you going to stop him?" asked Weasel.

"Well, first, I'm gonna pull all the blood out of his body-"

"Uh, Wade-"

"Not now, Shorty. Then, I'm going to fashion his bones into holiday jewellery -"

"Wade-"

"Not now! And lastly, I'm going to take his skin and stretch it out over a homemade mating drum…" His words trailed off. "He's right there, isn't he?"

"Yup," said Nina, popping the 'p'.

Everyone spun around to see that indeed, Nathan was standing there. Nina jumped when everyone pulled a gun on him. Understandably though.

"Hand's up!" Wade ordered. Nathan lifted his hands slightly. "What in the ass? Is this apartment listed on Tinder? Grindr?"

"What are those?" Nina asked.

"You're messing with the wrong guy." Wade uncrossed and then re-crossed his bare legs.

"Is that really necessary?" demanded Nathan.

"No, it's just his basic instinct." Weasel grinned.

Wade shook his head in mock disappointment. "You too, Shorty, hands up. I feel betrayed. I feel that, right here in the heart." He dramatically lay a hand on his chest.

"Don't threaten her," Nathan growled. This only prompted everyone to raise their weapons further.

"You led him straight to us."

Nina lifted her hands too. "I did no such thing. We followed the trail of your blood and guts here. Which I am still trying to un-see, along with that-" She nodded to his mid-growth legs.

"It's growing pains, something you obviously wouldn't know much about." She sighed, blowing her long bangs out of her eyes. "It's fine, I understand, you choosing your husband over me, but after all we've been through-"

" _Future_ husband," she corrected.

"Wait, _what_?" cried Domino.

"Whoa, whoa, backup for a second," agreed Weasel. Even Dopinder let out a small scream.

"Why couldn't God take my hearing?" said Al, who was sitting on the couch next to Wade. Nina felt bad for the older woman, with everyone intruding into her apartment. But with Wade as a neighbour, it probably happened often.

"I know, right? Like, how the fuck did that ever happen?"

"Are you done?" Nina asked while everyone continued to gawk at the future couple.

"No, I'm not actually."

"Of course not."

"Like how the fuck did Little Miss Sunshine ever marry Grumpy from the seven dwarves?" Wade obviously thought his joke was pretty funny, for he began to cackle with laughter. "Opposites attract I guess."

She could practically feel the rage radiating off of Nathan, and made a point of stepping in front of him to separate him from Wade. "Well it technically hasn't happened yet, at least not by my timeline. And I'm not picking sides here. He wants to negotiate."

"Alright, now listen Shorty-"

"Hey, don't call her that, she hates it." Nathan tensed up and stepped forward defensively.

"Whoa, hey, it's okay, really. He does it all the time. I know it's all in good fun."

"Someone's protective. What can we help you with?" Wade asked.

"I'm here to proposition you."

Wade gave a sharp laugh. "Oh ho! You all hear that?"

"I need your help!" Nathan cut in forcefully. "Trust me, I'm even less happy about this than you are, but you released the Juggernaut, you dumb fuck, and I can't bring him down alone. Nina convinced me to come to you, so here we are."

"But you're not alone. You've got wifey."

"Wade, please," sighed Nina. "Just hear him out."

"Well, unfortunately we're no longer accepting applications to X-Force. And even if we were, there's a wind advisory in effect-"

"Your friend's about to make his first kill," Nathan cut it, stopping another one of Wade's monologues.

"Okay, no offence, but if you know so much about him why don't you just travel back in time to when he was a baby and kill him then?"

"Wade!" gasped Nina, appalled.

"Or do even better, go back even further and kill baby Hitler."

"I use a device to slide through time," Nathan explained. "The longer I travel the harder it is to control. I have two charges: one to get me here, one to get me home."

"Well, that's just lazy writing. Can't you just ask wifey here to reality-blast it all into some random, far away parallel dimension?"

"My powers don't work like that." Nina shook her head. "They're more complicated and complex than that."

"That's also just lazy writing. Alright then, just hang on beauty and the beast –"

"Your boy's going to kill the headmaster of that orphanage tonight. And afterwards he gets a real taste for it. So, he keeps killing, and killing, and killing…" Nathan began striding forward towards Wade, the others taking a step back but keeping their weapons ready just in case. "Until one night, he kills the wrong, fucking people: my people, my family. My wife and our daughter."

There was a tense silence, broken when Nathan reached to pull his bag over his shoulder. Everyone raised their weapons. "Relax. I'm retrieving something from my utility bag."

"It's a goddamn fanny pack and you know it you sick son of a bitch! The difference is night and day!" cried Weasel.

"Can we all stop pointing guns at each other, please?" cried Nina.

This request was ignored when they raised their weapons again when Nathan withdrew whatever it was he was looking for – which turned out to only be a small stick of lip balm. He stared at Wade as he applied some on his lips. "You remind me of her, my wife."

"Uh, she is your wife…"

"No, I was talking to you."

Both Wade and Nina exchanged a glance before gawking at him. "I'm sorry?" Wade cried.

"I said you remind me of my wife-"

"No, I'm sorry you said that-"

"Me too," added Nina.

"-While making heavy eye contact and applying lip balm," Wade finished.

"Me too."

"She always struggled," continued Nathan, smiling fondly. "But she was funny. Filtered her pain through the prism of humour."

"Huh, good to know, I guess." Nina nodded. It was a little scary how much this aligned with her current self. Guess she didn't change much in the future. She didn't think of herself as particularly funny, but he obviously thought so, and she found it sweet for him to point out. On an opposite note though, to hear him speak of her in the past-tense was extremely unsettling and made her stomach churn uncomfortably.

"Something I could never master," Nathan finished.

"Well that much is obvious." Wade turned to Nina. "You hear that, Shorty? We have a lot in common!"

"Who's the shorty now?" she fired back.

This was met by a burst of hearty laughter, and everyone turned to see Nathan suddenly smiling widely. "See, told you she was funny." That smile quickly fell though, and he once again turned grim. "It was my fault she died. It was my job to stop people like him. I came close, a couple of times, and he wasn't too happy about that. He was trying to hurt me, and he knew exactly how to do it."

She flinched as the still strikingly clear image of her own dead body cradling the equally dead body of her daughter – their daughter – flashed before her eyes again, along with the pain and searing heat. This didn't go unnoticed.

"He struck suddenly, had the element of surprise. They began evacuating the neighbourhood. Our little girl got lost in the chaos, separated from us. Turns out, she went back home." He was getting choked up now. "She went to the one place where she felt safest, where her family was, or was supposed to be. The one place that he knew where to strike."

Nina didn't know how she hadn't noticed before, but he had tied Hope's teddy bear to his belt, always carrying it with him, and was holding it now as if in comfort. This tore at her heart.

"We went searching for her, Nina got to her first, and he got them both." He paused to take a deep breath. "I found them both dead, in what remained of our home, Nina still cradling our daughter, holding her, her last attempt at saving her."

The memory of the little girl's scream ripped through her mind. _"Mummy!"_

"My whole life, my everything, gone, just like that."

This was followed by silence. At last, everyone lowered their weapons.

"Hey, you okay?" It was only when Wade addressed her, acting possibly the most serious she had ever seen from him, that she realized she was crying. Silently, but she still had tears running down her cheeks. She brushed them away, nodding distantly.

"He came into my home and took away the only thing that made it a home." Nathan's distant gaze fell upon Wade. "Sound familiar?"

Wade looked from Nathan to her. "This true?" She nodded. "I thought you couldn't die."

"So did I. But I guess I can be killed. And he and I have a daughter, Wade, a little girl. She's only six." _Hope…_

"I'm sorry." Now Wade sounded a little choked up too. Nathan scoffed, thinking his words were out of pity. "No, I'm really sorry. I am. But that isn't Russell. It doesn't have to be him-"

"If you knew what I knew-"

"We can help him-"

"If you could go back and get the people who took your girl, would you?"

"Of course I fucking would! But I wouldn't kill a kid."

"I'm not asking you to kill a kid, I'll kill the kid."

"Nathan!" cried Nina.

"Huh, Nathan, that's your name?" Now Wade grinned. "Can I call you 'Nate'?"

"I'm asking you to save hundreds of other kids, including my own. Russell's going to burn down that orphanage, and I can imagine your dead girlfriend would want you to do the right thing, wouldn't she?"

"Well I can imagine your wife would want you to do the right thing too."

"Thank you," agreed Nina.

"So, what's it going to be?"

Wade considered this. "Give me a chance to save him."

"What-"

"You said that once he kills someone he gets a taste for it. As someone with a certain taste for killing, myself-"

"Wade," Nina sighed.

"-If we can get to him before that happens, promise you'll give me the chance to put him on a different path."

"I agree with Wade," Nina said for good measure.

"Define chance."

"Well, I don't know. How long does it take you to save someone's soul?"

"I'll give you thirty seconds."

"What? No-"

"That's the best I can do, take it or leave it."

Wade pushed himself up and off the couch and began walking – well, more like waddling – over to Nathan.

"He's doing it! Look at the little fella, he's doing it!" cried Weasel.

"Jesus Christ-" mumbled Nathan as Wade approached.

"Christ, that's disturbing," added Domino.

Wade held out his hand, and Nathan shook it.

A tense and very uncomfortable silence filled the room.

"I have no idea what's happening," spoke up Al.

"Probably for the best," Dopinder informed her.

"Yeah," agreed Nina. "I have seen a lot of strange things in all my X-Men days. But this might just top the list."

"Okay!" Wade clapped his hands together. "Dopinder, fire up the car. We're doing this!... As soon as my legs grow back…"

 _Whew, that was long and emotional! So I've decided that I'm going to make a sequel for this story (I'm super excited!) Thank you all so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed (as always!)_


	11. 10

10.

"Ugh, why'd I have to get stuck in the back with the lovesick fools?" Domino winked at Nina.

"Oh, we're not-" Nina tried to explain, but Wade jumped in.

"Shorty, you sit in the middle cause you're the smallest."

That was how she found herself squished between Domino and Nathan in the backseat of Dopinder's taxi cab. Wade had said shotgun was always reserved for himself.

"And those are just the first five steps to a prostate-assisted orgasm," Wade was saying. He glanced back at them through the rear-view mirror, the white eyes of his mask wide.

"I miss the X-Men," Nina declared.

"Oh come on, X-Force is where it's at, baby!" Wade proudly crossed his arms over his chest in the X-Force gesture he had established. "Comfy back there?"

"Not really, no." The car wasn't big, so it would have been squishy to have three people sitting in the back anyways. Not to mention they had their weapons – Nathan's huge, futuristic gun took up most of the backseat itself.

"I think Cable is, hehe." Wade nodded to the cyber-solder sitting on her left.

Nathan just glowered. "Where the hell are we going?"

"You said it yourself, nothing can stop the Juggernaut. We need back up! And while we're at it- hey Doms-" Wade spun around. "-Do me a favour and keep an eye on those lovers back there." Even though his mask covered his face, Nina could tell he was raising his eyebrows suggestively.

"Why do you feel we need to be supervised?" she questioned, a challenge in her bright eyes. "We're all responsible adults here."

"Are we?"

"Well maybe you're not."

"Ohhhhh! Good one! High five!" exclaimed Domino.

"Well, I know as well as anyone the potential the back seat of a car holds."

Nina's victory following her joke was short-lived. "Eww, Wade! What the - why would one make out in the back seat of a car when there are other people in it too?"

"Never stopped me. And I wasn't just talking about making out…"

"WADE!"

"I'm just saying." Wade held up his hands in surrender. "Aww, you're cute when you blush!" She blew the hair out of her eyes.

"Don't call her cute," stepped in Nathan.

"Whoa, chill, Lover-boy, I'm not hitting on your wife or anything. I mean your future wife – wait, no, she's your wife, to you, but not to her – yet. Damn, this is confusing."

"Tell me about it," she agreed.

"Anywho, just chill out, okay? We're all friends here. Geez, I can't even complement my friend anymore. Yikes."

Nathan just grunted in response.

"Too much information, Wilson. As usual," Nina said.

"Can you turn off the music," Nathan demanded.

Dopinder reached for the radio, but Wade smacked his hand away. "You'll do no such thing." He whirled around in his seat to face Nathan, the eyes of his mask now narrowed. "This is a side of you I do not like."

"I'm sorry?"

"Apology accepted."

"What the hell are you-"

"Once again intolerance rears its ugly head, I am so sorry. It gets better." Wade began stroking Dopinder's hair.

"I'm not a fucking racist, you moron."

"Tell that to Black Tom, he was like a brother to me." Wade crossed himself.

"I'm sorry, I'm confused, who's Black Tom?" Nina asked.

"A buddy of mine who I met in the Ice Box, and who your future husband here brutally murdered!"

"I was aiming for you," shot back Nathan.

"Boys, could you please, please try and get along. Just try," Nina begged. "For all our sakes."

"I'm not a big fan of music in general," Nathan explained.

She gasped. "I love music! Every morning I have this sort of ritual where I-"

"-Where you dance to '70s hits. Yeah, I know, you do that in the future too."

"Oh, I do?" She smiled. "My favourite band would have to be-"

"Abba," he finished.

"Oh, yes, that's right. And my favourite song of theirs is-"

" _Dancing Queen_."

"Well, yes."

"Awwww!" gushed Wade. "He knows your favourite band and song!"

Her smile fell. "But you don't like it?"

"So what exactly do you do in the future anyway? Some kind of soldier or something?" Wade asked Nathan.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Does that explain the massive gun?" Nina asked, tapping the piece of futuristic machinery.

"Speaking of massive-" Wade began.

"Don't." Nina stopped him.

Wade chuckled. "I was a soldier too, special forces. I bet fifty years from now we're bestest buddies."

"Fifty years from now you're very dead. Your entire generation fucked this planet into a coma."

"BOOM! Spoiler alert!" Wade snorted with laughter. "Planets."

"Sounds lovely," mumbled Nina.

"Yeah, it's like, _Days of Future Past_ all over again."

"You weren't even there."

Wade gave a hurt gasp. "Thanks for rubbing it in! You all were having fun without me – how do you think that makes me feel, huh?"

"Next time, Uber," mumbled Domino.

"What's that?" Nina asked her.

"You don't get out much, do you?"

"Here's a spoiler alert-" Nathan leaned forward in his seat. "You're not a fucking hero. You're nothing but an annoying clown dressed up as a sex toy." He grinned, obviously pleased with his comment.

"Boys, be nice, _please_."

"Yeah, listen to your wife."

"I'm not his-"

"Just fuck off," Nathan snapped at Wade.

"Oh, oohoohooo, mouthy much? Hey, you probably already know this, but your wife is quite the stickler about language."

"I work in a school full of children, of course I am!" She turned to Nathan. "But he's right, do you always talk like this? You're almost as bad as Wade, and that's saying a lot."

"No one's as good with F-bombs as me," Wade defended proudly.

"Even around our daughter?" she pressed. "Oh you'd better not."

"No..."

"Well I should hope not."

"But hey, you dated Wolverine. Yikes, did you hear that guy speak?" Wade glanced at Nathan who grunted. "Oh, sorry, guess I shouldn't be bringing up the wife's ex-boyfriends in front of you, should I? Is someone a little jelly? Don't worry, there's no competition-"

"Go to hell."

"Nathan!" scolded Nina.

"It's just this little fucker seems to have a knack for bringing out the worst in me."

Wade gasped. "Oh! I'm honoured!"

Nina gasped too. "Again! Unbelievable! Alright that's it, I'm starting a swear jar for you two. Twenty-five cents for each F-word you say. You're already at five-"

"Who's counting?"

"-So I'm already at a dollar and twenty-five cents."

"To be fair, those were all future-hubby."

"At this rate I'll be rich by the time we're done here."

"I can't wait to meet your daughter," Wade chimed.

"Me neither," she admitted.

"I will personally see to it that you never do," Nathan said.

"What's she like? I'm just trying to imagine a fusion of you two-"

"Dopinder, would you please turn up the air conditioning?" Nina broke in before Wade could continue.

"Sure thing, Miss Nina!"

"Gettin' hot back there?" Wade asked.

"Yes, I am, actually-" She stopped. "Oh no, you're just going to turn what I say into something inappropriate."

"Me?" Wade scoffed. "Never! It's okay, you're not the only one who's getting all hot and bothered back there..."

"See! My point exactly!"

"Speaking of love, I've got some news for you, Soldier: my heart is in the right place. Russell's not going to kill anyone and because of me he's going to know what real love looks like."

"Aww, that's actually really sweet, Wade."

"Thanks, Shorty!"

"She has a name, you know," broke in Nathan.

"She can speak for herself, you know," Nina shot back.

"We're all gonna die," muttered Domino.

"Well because of you I'll always know what a grown man with baby balls looks like," Nathan snapped back at Wade.

"I'm a grower, not a shower."

"Actually you're both." Her comment made Nathan laugh again.

"I should've finished college," Domino chuckled.

"Are we there yet?" broke in Nina.

"Nope, not even close!" Wade answered.

"Fantastic."

This was going to be one long car ride.

 _Whew! There was so much dialogue I wanted to add to that! There's my take on an extended car ride scene - anybody else love that Wade calls Domino 'Doms'?_

 _I hope you enjoyed as always and thank you so much for reading! :)_


	12. 11

11.

Following the longest car ride ever-

"RIGHT HERE!"

Dopinder slammed on the breaks and the car screeched to a halt in front of the mansion. Nina had managed to drown out Wade's undying chattering and had just been dozing off – her head resting on Nathan's shoulder. Geez, fate really was trying to push them together. "Oh, we're home."

They had arrived back at the mansion. Wade promptly got out of the car and began playing music from his phone to try and persuade Colossus to forgive him and join them, recruit the 'back up' he had spoken of earlier. Colossus, however, wasn't having any of it.

"Colossus? I know you're in there!" Nothing. "Fine! Be that way then! You know what? Sometimes, doing the right thing is messy, and fucked up, and not particularly convenient, but you do it anyways cause it's the right thing to do!"

"Nicely said!" commented Nina.

"Why thank you!" Wade turned back to yelling at Colossus. "So you stay here in Chateau de Virgin while we go get our fuck on!" On that note, Wade headed back to the car, only to find he'd locked himself out.

"You're doing great," said Domino, peeking out of the window.

"Did you just call the mansion 'Chateau de Virgin'?" Nina asked as Wade climbed back into the car and Dopinder pulled away.

"Sure did. You got a problem with that?"

"Yeah, I do, actually. Not all X-Men are virgins."

Wade gasped. "Shorty!"

"I didn't say I'm speaking from personal experience." She held up her hands in surrender. "I'm just saying."

* * *

"TURN HERE!"

Wade having not given Dopinder any notice at all, the cab driver made a sharp turn, the car squealing around the corner. Nina practically flew into Nathan's lap.

"Sorry!" Dopinder called.

"My bad!" added Wade. He was following directions – very terribly – on the cab's GPS to the orphanage where Russell was headed.

"You are terrible at giving directions," remarked Domino.

"Am not!"

"Are to!"

"Am _not_!"

"Why don't you let Domino take over, she's lucky," suggested Nina.

The other woman grinned. "Sure am!"

"Gettin' all cozy and cuddly back there, you two?" asked Wade.

It was only then that Nina realized she was still in Nathan's lap, their faces close. "Sorry..." She awkwardly slid back into the middle seat.

"Oh, he doesn't mind." If Wade's mask had eyebrows, they would be wiggling. "Do you, pirate-eye?" Nathan only glared back.

"Save it for the bedroom you two."

"Wade, I swear-"

"I thought you hated swearing."

"Unbelievable!"

* * *

"Time to make the chimichangas." Wade rubbed his hands together.

"I've got a good feeling about this," Domino declared, slamming the car door with purpose. They had just arrived at the orphanage.

"Okay, Luckypants."

"Thirty seconds," Nathan reminded Wade.

"I've been meaning to ask you, what's with the dirty, creepy hobo bear?"

"It's not dirt," spat back Nathan. "It's the blood of my dead daughter."

"Oh." Wade nodded. "Are you bear God? It's me, Margaret. Give me some." He raised his fist for a fist-bump, which Cable ignored. "You know, they say laughter can heal anything."

"Except for that," said Nina.

"Yeah... I really wish I could go back in time and take all that back... You know what, let's just cue the music."

With that the five began charging forward. Nina and Nathan were soon jogging behind Wade, Domino, and Dopinder.

"Keep up, Shorties!" Wade called over his shoulder.

The group skidded to a stop before the building's entrance, where Russell, backed by Juggernaut, stood.

"Russell!" called Wade. "You don't have to do this! Let's talk."

Instead of answering, Russell gave a yell and blasted the front doors open with a fistful of flame and headed inside.

"See, screw your plan, I told you he's too far gone," Nathan told Wade.

"Zip it, Thanos! We have a deal, and you - AH!" Wade cried out when Nathan grabbed his face with his metal hand.

"Boys, play nice, please," reminded Nina.

"Hey!" They all turned to see Juggernaut marching towards them. Wade, Domino, and Nathan all raised their guns. "I'm gonna shove that cab driver right up your ass."

"You should probably head back to the car-"

"I think I'll head back to the car!" Wade and Dopinder's words overlapped as Dopinder took off running back towards his cab.

Nathan had his gun raised and facing Juggernaut.

"It works best when you pull the trigger!" Wade hissed.

Nathan fired, the blast sending Juggernaut crashing back into the wall of the institute.

"Oh! Nice shot!" commented Nina.

"I told you that gun is amazing!" gushed Wade.

"This guy is amazing!" There was silence following her declaration. "Did I just say that out loud?"

Before anyone could say anything, not even Wade with some smart comment, the Juggernaut was already recovered and came charging towards them. The three with guns began a steady stream of fire towards their hulking opponent.

"Not to state the obvious, but I don't think these guns are working!" Nina shouted over the sound of synchronized gunfire as Juggernaut continued to charge towards them, seemingly unphased by the spray of bullets.

"Now I'm gonna shove the red guy up the old guy," he declared.

"I believe him! Every man for himself!" cried Wade.

"Beat it, midget!" Juggernaut snatched Nathan's gun from him and kicked him, sending him smashing into a nearby parked car.

"Hey! That's not very nice!" The giant looked down at Nina who was shouting up at him.

"Shut it, Shorty!"

She gave a loud, offended gasp. "Don't call me that! I hate it when people call me that!" With a yell she threw a blast of energy at him, which shot him way up in the air only to come crashing back down. "Only he's allowed to call me that." She nodded to Wade who jumped onto Juggernaut's shoulders and tried to wrench off his helmet with his swords.

"Hey Shorty, any chance you could like, open up the dark dimension or something?" Wade called as he struggled against Juggernaut.

"No, I cannot!" she cried. "I can't just go using it every time we have a problem! It doesn't work that way." They were referring to the 'other' side of her powers, being able to open and tap into the powerful dark sector of reality. The process was very difficult and draining. She had done so in a desperate attempt to stop the Sentinels when she and Logan went to change the future, and also when the X-Men had been fighting Apocalypse. Now was not one of those such times - not yet.

Juggernaut wasn't very phased by their attack, though. He took no time in grabbing Wade by the ankle and throwing him into a fence, impaling him on the spikes.

Now it was Domino's turn to take on the giant. With Juggernaut chasing her she fired her gun without looking behind her, dropping the weapon when it ran out of bullets, which Juggernaut 'happened' to trip over. She jumped onto the playground equipment and back-flipped in the air. Nathan threw a gun to her and she caught it mid-flip before landing safely on her feet. She fired and the explosive hit Juggernaut, a direct hit. Nina jumped forward and cast a protective field around them just as it exploded.

"That was lucky!" she cried.

"Hell yeah it was!" Domino grinned.

"Good teamwork," Nina commented.

"Hey! Pick on someone your own size!" They turned to see Colossus had arrived after all and helped Wade before charging towards Juggernaut.

"Go get 'em tiger!" Wade cheered him on. They watched Juggernaut slam Colossus into the ground. "Yeah, he's doing great."

They heard another yell followed by a blast, and turned to see Russell still chasing after the headmaster.

"Russell," growled Nathan.

"Bingo!" Wade started after him.

"Hey!" Now they were being approached by a bunch of the orphanage's guards, guns raised at them.

"What sort of orphanage is this?" winced Nina.

Nathan was readying two pistols. "Can I have one of those guns?" Wade asked.

"No." Nathan passed one to Nina. "Here."

"Oh, thanks. But I'm good," she politely refused the offered weapon.

"Okay, I see how it is. That's okay, I'll just use this brick, maximum effort." Wade scooped up a brick from the ground.

"Mutant scum!" yelled the guards.

"Who are you calling scum, scum!" Nina yelled back.

"That's my girl," mumbled Nathan with a slight grin.

While Domino headed inside to help the other children, the three outside took down the guards while Colossus continued to fight Juggernaut.

"Oh my God, did you feel that too?" Wade asked Cable as the two shot down the last of the guards almost in synch. "Teamwork! See Shorty, we're playing nice now."

"Good. I'm glad."

"Russell!" The three burst into what they found was the flaming auditorium. Russell threw a fistful of flame at them, Nathan diving in front to block it with his arm's shield. The flames bounced off the shield and shot into the ceiling.

Nathan then reached for his gun. "Wait! He hasn't killed anyone yet!" cried Wade.

"What more do you need to see?!"

"No! Nathan don't!" pleaded Nina.

Wade took a bit more of an aggressive stance. "Don't you fucking dare!"

"Tick tock, meter's running. Thirty seconds."

"He's just a kid!"

"I told you: LEAVE ME ALONE!" screamed Russell.

"Just listen to me-" Wade tried. His thirty seconds were fading fast.

"Come on," urged Cable.

"Don't!"

"No, don't!" Nina jumped in his path. "Nathan stop – think about what you're doing. Just think! I know you're blinded by grief and rage, but please. Just because he kills me and Hope doesn't mean we should kill him. As my future husband and father of my future child, I can't let you do this."

"Nina, get out of the way – please."

"Nathan, think of Hope."

Something softened in his expression at these words, but only for a moment. "I am. That's why I've gotta do this."

"No! He's just a kid!" She spun around to face the person in question. "You're Russell, right?"

"Firefist!"

She ignored Wade's snort of laughter from behind her. "Okay, Firefirst. I'm Nina, or Night Witch. Listen, I understand that you're angry and scared. The people here hurt you. Now, I've always had a place where I fit in, I've been very privileged that way, but that just goes to show that there are places and people that accept us, not every place is going to be like this and not everyone is going to be like that Headmaster. So please, stand down. No one has to die."

Her words made Russell pause, the flames in his hands shrinking a little.

There was a rumble from above. Seconds later, the flaming ceiling boards directly above her came crashing down. Nina threw up her hands to cast a protective shield.

But everything went dark.

 _Cliffhanger! ;) I hope you enjoyed as always and thank you so much for reading! :)_


	13. 12

12.

The next moment Nina was gone and all that was left was a large pile of smouldering wood.

"Nina!" Nathan dove onto the pile and began tossing the remains aside to search for her.

"She was so fucking close!" This was true – even Nathan had seen Russell beginning to give into what she had been saying. "Shorty!" Wade too, fell to his knees and began tossing aside pieces of wood carelessly. "Where you at?"

Finally, Nathan removed a board to uncover her, her face darkened with soot and ash and blood.

"Nina-" He gently touched her cheek, receiving a faint moan and the fluttering of her eyelids in response. She was conscious, but barely.

With an enraged yell, he dove at the pyrokinetic boy, shoving him to the ground.

Wade was helping the dazed and limp Nina climb out of the debris while Russell grabbed Nathan's human arm and singed it. Wade, still hanging onto Nina, just managed to dive in and grab Cable right as Russell launched another angry blast of flame their way, this one sending all three through the wall and out into the courtyard.

"Go go go go go!" Russell was already casting more flames their way, and they rushed to take cover.

"Go home, Wade! You're ruining everything! He dies tonight – you can't stop me!"

"There's one more bullet in that gun," Cable stated.

"Wait, wait, wait, please, just give me a second," Wade requested. "I got this!" He approached Russell.

Nathan did wait, and let Wade try and talk to the kid. He helped Nina to her feet and she leaned on him for support. "It's alright, Sweetheart, I've got you." It just slipped out.

She didn't comment. Everything was slipping in and out of focus.

"Hey, you alright?" Domino jogged over.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine-" Even her voice sounded distant.

"Whoa-" The other woman caught her when she swayed slightly, and also helped support her.

"That piece of shit, he deserves to die for what he did." Wade was still talking to Russell, still trying to persuade him to stand down. "But if you do this, then he wins. You become everything he says you are, and I know you aren't. He hurt you, and that makes you want to hurt others."

"How do you know what I want?!"

"Because I've been inside you – that came out wrong. I've been inside your shoes," Wade tried again. "That's also off-putting. It's not a great analogy, but the point is: there are people, in this fucking world who will treat you right, besides him. It isn't too late – don't do this. I never should have left you back there in that shit-hole prison." Wade wrapped Russell up in a hug.

"I can't trust anybody!" Wade went shooting back when Russell broke their hug, blasting Wade.

He stumbled to his feet. "Okay, I've got one more idea, it's just a really bad one-" Wade withdrew a collar. "-Even for me." He put the collar around his neck.

"Wade, what are you doing?" cried Domino.

"Alright, this is for all the marbles, kid. If you're going to kill someone today, then it's gotta be me-"

"Blessed are the wicked who are healed by my hand!"

Suddenly, everything became strikingly clear.

Nathan dove forward, scooping up the gun. Russell, who was distracted by aiming for the headmaster, didn't see what Nathan was about to do. Wade did, however, and jumped forward, diving in front of the bullet which went straight through his chest, blood splattering from the wound.

Time seemed to slow down as Wade hit the ground and the realization of what had happened settled upon everyone.

Following a moment of stunned silence and stillness, they all rushed to crowd around the fallen Wade.

"Tell me they got that in slow motion."

"You sacrificed yourself for me," cried Russell, evidently shocked.

"Yeah. And it was the best thing I ever did. Told you I care about you, you're a good kid, Russell. Don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise. Hey, the bear, it worked-" Wade nodded to the teddy bear at Nathan's belt.

Nathan took it, seeing that indeed the dirt and blood was gone, leaving the teddy clean and back to the well-loved version Hope had.

"You're safe, Shorty." Wade's words settled in. Nina let a smile pass over her face. She still had a future, she didn't have to be haunted by the vision of her death anymore.

"Because of you." Wade turned back to Russell who helped him remove his mask.

"No, Wade. Because of you," said Colossus.

"Because of you both," said Nina, kneeling before Wade. "It's okay, you're going to be alright," she tried to assure him.

"Naw, I made sure this time. Thanks anyways, though."

Colossus knelt down to try and rip off the collar, but Wade smacked his hands away.

"It's okay, just let it happen. I guess my heart was finally in the right place. God, that riddle is so fucked up."

"I-I'm sorry, I'm so sorry-" Russell had begun to cry.

"Don't be. I've been trying to make this happen for a while now. Just don't leave me, I don't want to die without an audience."

"We're not going anywhere," assured Colossus.

"Hey, it's okay." Domino knelt beside him.

"Oh, I hope the Academy is watching." Wade began to sing, only to break off mid-verse as his head rolled to the side and he fell silent. To hear Wade fall silent was extremely unsettling.

"Before I go-" Everyone had just been turning away when he piped up again. "Sorry, got a little more in me. Domino, I want you to have my Adventure Time watch. It turns out that I'm the lucky one, thank you. Sabrina the Teenage Witch-" He turned to Ellie. "-It's been an honour. Hi Yukio!"

"Hi Wade!" Yukio grinned and waved.

"And you, Chrome Bone." Wade faced Colossus. "I haven't always been the best friend to you, but you've always been that to me. So thank you. Say 'fuck' for me, please, come on, just say it once. Come on, we'll do it together. One, two, three... F-f-f-u-u-"

"Fuck," Colossus followed through.

"Oh, wow! You hear that? Enjoy hell, swamp mouth!" Wade grinned, obviously feeling very accomplished. "I'm so proud of you," he added in a whisper. Then he turned to Nina. "You too, come on, just once, for me."

She shook her head. "Nope. Not happening, sorry."

"Not even for my dying wish?"

"Not a chance."

"Fine, Nina Nova-"

"Is that the first time you've ever called me by my name?"

"Possibly. Better late than never. I just wanted to say thank you for letting me call you by that horrible, mean nickname. It's been an honour."

"Like I said, I know it's all in good fun." She nodded. "You did it, Wade, you're an X-Man. You should be proud."

"Never stop being your sweet, kind, loving self. Never change, okay? And maybe, with a little luck – ha, luck!" He winked at Domino. "-Maybe some of it will rub off onto hubby here." He lifted his head up and nodded to Nathan. "Which brings me to this: I need you to promise me something."

"Alright."

"You will?"

"Yes, of course," she promised.

"Truly?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"Anything?"

"Yes!"

"When you two meet up in the future, promise me – _promise me –_ that you'll go and make lots of shorty super babies."

She stared blinking back at him before scoffing. "Oh, Wade-"

"Promise me."

"Jesus," mumbled Nathan.

She just blew her bangs out of her eyes.

"And name one of them after me."

She threw her arms up in defeat. "Alright, just for you-"

"No chance in hell-" Nathan's words overlapped with hers.

"Is that really your dying wish?" she asked

"Oh yes. Hmm, 'Wade Summers' – that's got a nice ring to it, wouldn't you say?"

"Jesus..."

Wade's next words were broken by a sharp cough. "And you, Cable, you get back to your family and you tell them Wade says hi. And promise me that you will no longer judge people by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character."

"That's beautiful, Wade." Nina gave him a watery-eyed smile.

"Thank you."

"Jesus," mumbled Nathan again.

"R-Dog!" Russell took Wade's outstretched hand. "There you are! You're a superhero now, kid, so it's high-time you got yourself a super-suit. That's why this one is yours!" Russell gave a teary smile. "And hey – family is not an F-word, alright? There's one out there for you, you just need to keep looking, okay?" Russell nodded, squeezing his hand. "I'm going to miss your funny hero name, Firefist-" He gave a snort of laughter. "Doms, I'm going to miss your confusing luck powers. X-Force! Silver-man, believe it or not, I'm going to miss all your rules. Negasonic Teenage Warhead, I'm going to miss your awesome name. Yukio, I'm going to miss how you always say hi to me. You two make a super cute couple! And speaking of super cute couples – Shorty, I'm going to miss calling you 'Shorty'. And Cable, I'm going to miss your amazing gun." He chuckled, but it was obvious that he was choked up too. "Guys, for a second there, we all made a pretty good team." Wade's gaze grew distant for a moment until he snapped it back to focus. "Oh it's so hard to go! I just love being around you guys so much, so, so much! I'm really gonna miss you guys. Oh wait, I feel it now, here it comes. Do you see that beautiful, bright light? Oh wait, that's the sun, don't stare directly into that." He fell silent and still.

"I think he's really gone now," said Colossus softly after a moment.

Russell gave Wade's hand still clutched tightly in both of his own a squeeze, before resting the limp hand on Wade's chest.

While everyone stood/sat silently around Wade's body, Nathan turned away.

His mission was complete, though not in the way he had originally thought.

He looked down at Hope's bear, all fixed, signalling that his home and family and future all were too. He could clearly picture Hope's big eyes and wide smile lighting up as she ran into his arms when he returned. _"Daddy!"_

He could see future-Nina's warm smile and feel her embrace as she welcomed him home. _"We missed you, Nate."_

His whole body ached with want for it all, and now he could have it again, as if nothing had ever gone wrong.

But it had.

Now this would be a memory for Nina, his wife Nina, she would remember what happened. His rage-inflicted mission to kill the child Firefist which led to him being spared but Deadpool being sacrificed. What would their relationship be like now that he had killed someone to make it happen, killed his wife's friend. And Hope – she would find out eventually, he couldn't keep it from her forever. He had killed before but not like this. The memory of her jumping happily into his arms faded with a vision of her looking up at him with sad eyes. _"Daddy, why did you do it?"_

And his wife Nina looking at him with disgust. _"How could you?"_ The look present-Nina was wearing now was clear: _my future husband did this_.

This was exactly what she, current Nina, had tried to stop when she had jumped between him and Russell: she didn't want her future husband and Hope's father to be a murderer. She was right, he couldn't kill just so they could live, it didn't work that way, not without consequences. He could return home now, but it wouldn't be the same. No one should have to die in this situation, not Nina, not Hope, not the kid, not even Deadpool. Nina's words filled his head. _The future isn't set... Nathan, think of Hope._

He felt a few cold tears spill from his eyes and onto the bear's fur as he lifted it up to his lips and kissed its head. _I love you both, I'm sorry._

Returning the bear to his belt he took his travel device and turned it, closing his eyes as the final charge carried him away.

 _Aw, that scene of Josh making the decision to save Wade and he's holding Hope's bear practically crying - get's me every time! One more chapter left - and then on to the sequel! :) Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!_


	14. 13

13.

As quickly as a snap of one's fingers, he was suddenly back with the others at the start of the fight, when they had arrived via taxi at the orphanage to confront Russell.

"I've been meaning to ask you, what's with the bear?" Although he knew it was coming, Nathan still bit back his annoyance at Deadpool, remembering why he was back here.

"It's my daughter's, she calls it her good-luck charm. Her name is Hope." Taking the skee-ball token he had stolen from the other man during their first encounter, he slipped it into the pocket on the chest of Deadpool's uniform.

"Uhh, what are you doing?"

"I like that name," piped up Nina. "It sounds so happy and sunny."

"Let me guess which one of you picked it out," said Wade.

Fast forward and back in the burning auditorium. Right before the ceiling collapsed, he dove in and grabbed Nina, shoving her out of the way as the flaming wood fell with a crackling crash to the spot where she had just been standing.

"Oh! Thanks – that was lucky!" she cried after shaking off the initial shock of the fall.

"Now is not the time you two!" Their position – the way they had landed, lying down with him on top of her – earned them a smart comment from Wade.

Then fast forward to Wade diving in front of the bullet-

"No!" Nathan heard Nina scream.

This time there was no splatter of blood.

Everyone rushed to crowd around Wade. "Tell me they got that in slow motion."

"You sacrificed yourself for me," cried Russell.

"It would seem that I-" Confusion laced Wade's words as he felt around on his chest for a bullet hole, but instead found the coin.

"Huh, genuine high-grade lead." He looked up at Nathan from where he was sitting on the ground. "You time-sliding son of a bitch! You did this for me?"

Nathan gave a small smile and an amazed laugh fell from Nina's lips.

"Wait, now you can't go back, you used the last of your fuel - what about your girl, and Future-Shorty?"

"My family's safe. And I didn't do it for you." He glanced Nina's way. "Naw, I'm going to stick around here for a while, make sure the world doesn't shit itself into oblivion."

"Naw, you did it for me."

"No, I didn't."

"You did."

"I really didn't."

"I think you did."

"No, I'm positive I didn't."

"Let's flip a coin, okay?" Wade held up his life-saving skee-ball token. "Heads, you did it for me, tails, you did it for me-" He flipped it half-heartedly. "I'm not even gonna look cause you did it for me."

"Say it again," threatened Nathan, jaw tightening.

"He did it for me." Wade nodded to the others in affirmation.

"Jesus."

"We must get the collar off," Colossus reminded them.

"Yeah, but these collars don't just come off."

"Wade!" Russell cried, withdrawing a pen from his pocket. "I have an idea."

"Oh no, no, no, no." Wade shook his head vigorously. "I'd rather die of cancer. Oh God – they do say the pen is grosser than the sword," he said as Russell used the pen to hack into the collar.

"We need a code!"

"Try – seven," suggested Domino.

"Okay, settle down, Captain Lucky. It's not going to be just one number-" Russell punched it in and the collar unlocked. "God that's lazy writing."

"I still got it!" Domino grinned.

Wade got to his feet, now collar-free, and turned back to Nathan. "I don't know how to thank you, but I do know how to hug you."

"No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Oh, yes!"

Nina couldn't help but chuckle as Wade approached Nathan, arms outstretched, and the look of pure horror that passed over Nathan's face when Wade leaned down and pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Shorty, you seeing this?"

"I see it."

"Are you happy?"

"Very." Now she had something to tease future-hubby about.

Their moment didn't last long though. There was the swish of metal. "Is there a knife in my dick?" asked Wade.

"There's a knife in your dick," confirmed Nathan. "Yeah."

"I'm just gonna back up. Yikes, watch out for this guy. Gonna pretend like that never happened. No need to go full _Yentl_." Wade then turned to Russell. "Come on, Russell, let's go home. Let's get out of this creepy shit-hole."

As the group began heading off, Nina turned to Nathan who was looking down at Hope's bear. "I thought you were going to leave without saying goodbye." He looked at her with a sad smile. "Thank you, for what you did, and I'm sorry."

"Of course. Just want to keep my family safe."

"I think you've succeeded. And thank you, for saving Wade and all."

"Yeah..." He sighed. "I just hope he doesn't make me regret it."

"Oh I'm sure he will, but that's just Wade." She smiled. "It'll be nice having you around, Nathan."

"You two lovebirds coming!"

Nina giggled at little when Nathan gritted his teeth in annoyance.

"What were you two talking about? Making future plans?" Wade asked as she caught up with him.

"You know, I think I'm starting to see what I see in this guy in the future."

"Whoa, slow down there, Juliet. I said in the future go and make some super babies."

She rolled her eyes. "Relax, Wilson. I need to get to know him better before that happens. I'm just saying that I'm excited for what the future holds-"

"All you dirty mutants are going to rot in hell with the boy!" The group turned to see that the creepy headmaster had come out of hiding. "Your souls are beyond redemption!" he condemned them.

"Let's see your soul, perv!" Nathan whipped out a knife.

"Is that the same knife you stabbed me in the dick with?" asked Wade.

"Yeah, do you even have a soul?" added Nina.

"That's my girl."

"No, no stop! Stop! Enough of this senseless violence, enough bloodshed!" ordered Wade. "We're better than that, we're better than him. Shorty, you too, I'm surprised."

"Says you!"

"It's about time we all changed our ways. We'll let karma take care of him."

As if on cue, there was the screeching of car tires and Dopinder's taxi flew in from out of nowhere, striking the headmaster. Nina gasped and her hands flew to her mouth as Nathan cringed.

"WHOOHOO!" Dopinder jumped out of the cab. "COURAGE!"

"And karma," noted Domino.

"I could hear you coming the last thirty seconds and I could barely keep a straight face!" Wade snorted with laughter. Then he turned to Ellie and Yukio. "You coming with us?"

"We'll get these kids back to the mansion," said Ellie. "Besides, we're X-Men."

"No, you're X-People."

She narrowed her eyes. "You're ex-hausting."

"Haha, I see what you did there. Oh, puns!"

"You go ahead, I'll catch up later," Nina told them. The two girls nodded and ran off to the jet.

"Does that mean you're coming with us? For real?" cried Wade.

"Yeah, X-Force is where it's at, baby, right?"

"You said it! Yay, Shorty's with us!" He leaned down and gave her a bone-crushing hug before slinging an arm around her shoulders. He tried to put an arm around Nathan too, but Nathan shoved him away, making her laugh.

To celebrate – and because everyone was starving – Wade took them all out for chimichangas, insisting that this wasn't plagiarizing the _Avengers_ shawarma end credit scene. "It's chimichangas, not shawarma," he'd justified. "And were X-Force, not the Avengers. Besides, we deserve it."

So that was how she found herself sitting there in the restaurant surrounded by her new team, including her future husband and once-future-murderer. It had been a completely wild week, and it could only get stranger from here.

 _And that's it! You've reached the end! Thank you so much for sticking with me throughout this story and I hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know what you think! :) I know there wasn't a lot of Nina and Cable romance - yet - but I felt it was too soon. But the sequel! ;) haha there'll definitely be romance there, I'll let you know when it's up - thanks again for your support!_


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